ABSTRACT
WHEN INVITED TO PARTICIPATE on panels that address issues of sexuality and race, I am very rarely asked to speak from the position of artist or video producer. Sometimes, but still quite infrequently, I am situated as the lone gay person among other Asians or people of color. Most often, however, it is as an Asian that I am strategically included in the lineup of speakers, whether gay or straight, and I am usually the only Asian in a one-of-each selection of the shifting list of requisite “minorities.” In the United States this also includes African Americans, Latinos, and sometimes Native Americans; in Canada, where I live, the register is similar, but with the addition of South as well as East or Southeast Asians. Since the Gulf War, there is an increasing recognition of Arab Americans and Canadians as part of the inventory of “people of color.”
